Pages

Friday, December 30, 2016

Happy New Year 2017 from Quilt Inspiration. To all of our readers around the world, we wish you years of peace, joy, and many blessings ! Thanks so much to everyone for dropping by to read this blog and for all your nice comments.

Susan says of her original design, "Raw edge applique, free motion stitching, stitching with the walking foot. Simple, yet effective." We agree, and this brings to mind the old adage, "Less is more." The theme of Peace on Earth, with the dove carrying the olive branch, flying through a hushed, starlit sky, is a beautifully depicted motif. Circular, swirling cut outs on the dove add visual interest, elegance, and sophistication.

Closeup, Peace by Susan Gladwell

Susan quilted this lovely work herself using a stationary machine. In this close-up, you can see the gold paint that embellishes the olive branch and the stem edges.

Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2016 Quilt Arizona ! show.

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Merry Christmas to all! Here is the finale of Quilt Inspiration's countdown to Christmas ! Each day up to and
including Christmas Eve, we've featured a quilt that reflects the spirit
and beauty of the season. Please join us for Day 12 of our celebration.Please note: We're selling beautiful quilting and crafting books and fabrics at low introductory prices on e-Bay! Also, we're continuously posting free patterns on Twitter!

Gloria by Shauna M. Kawasaki

Surrounded by yarn fringe and covered with embroidery and beading, Gloria is an original work of art by Shauna Kawasaki, who says: "I love to decorate for Christmas. Recently, I was not home at Christmas to decorate, so I made this quilt and decorated and decorated and decorated...."

Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2016 Springville (Utah) Museum of Art quilt show.

Friday, December 23, 2016

Here is Quilt Inspiration's countdown to Christmas ! Each day up to and
including Christmas Eve, we'll feature a quilt that reflects the spirit
and beauty of the season. Please join us for Day 11 of our celebration !

An entire Nativity scene, and it is paper pieced! Lisa Robison says, "I loved how intricate this pattern was." We loved her choice of fabrics for each of the figures and animals.

Lisa Robison continues, "I wanted to make one for all my daughters in
law, but so far I have only made one. Maybe in the next decade they will
get theirs."

Oh Holy Night is based on the Nativity Advent Pattern by Paper Panache. The pattern is designed in an advent format so you can sew a little every day for 25 days. Lisa Robison's quiltwas exhibited at the 2016 Springville (Utah) Museum of Art Quilt Show.

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Here is Quilt Inspiration's countdown to Christmas ! Each day up to and
including Christmas Eve, we'll feature a quilt that reflects the spirit
and beauty of the season. Please join us for Day 10 of our celebration !

Jared Moore says, "This quilt expresses my love for various things: the stars, moon, trees, and of course, Christmas. I have always wanted to create a close up image of the moon, and I finally found the perfect subject using the journey of Mary and Joseph walking to Bethlehem."

Jared continues, "The design uses open applique with free motion quilting on a home machine. This quilt was not nearly as time consuming and complex as many of my other quilts, and yet it is one of my favorites." Journey to Bethlehem was displayed at the 2016 Springville Museum of Art Utah Quilt Show.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Here is Quilt Inspiration's countdown to Christmas ! Each day up to and
including Christmas Eve, we'll feature a quilt that reflects the spirit
and beauty of the season. Please join us for Day 9 of our celebration !

Kris Lovetro says, "I saw this pattern online and loved the look of the geese forming the trees of the forest. It is a paper pieced pattern. I added the border of geese on two sides." Kris quilted Geese in the Forest on her longarm machine. The Geese in the Forest pattern is by Anina at Twiddletails.

This quilt was shown at the 2016 Arizona Quilters Guild show. Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Here is Quilt Inspiration's countdown to Christmas ! Each day up to and
including Christmas Eve, we'll feature a quilt that reflects the spirit
and beauty of the season. Please join us for Day 8 of our celebration !

Marlene writes, "I have always enjoyed working on Christmas quilts, so when I saw this snowman pattern, I knew immediately that it would be the next project on my design wall." We're very impressed by Marlene's extensive hand applique work and embellishments, which beautifully showcase these whimsical snowmen and their collection of stars.

To all of our advanced quilters: If you would like to take on this challenging and fabulous pattern, it is available at Bunny Hill Designs. We'd love to see a photo of your finished work too!

These doves, styled in a contemporary motif, carry a string of hearts and stars. They are surrounded by words which symbolize the values of Christmas : Love, Peace, Joy, and Hope.

Monday, December 19, 2016

Here is Quilt Inspiration's countdown to Christmas ! Each day up to and
including Christmas Eve, we'll feature a quilt that reflects the spirit
and beauty of the season. Please join us for Day 7 of our celebration.

Geneal's elegant bargello quilt is done in restful shades of muted green, red, ivory, and deep black solid fabrics. The rose print fabric of the border and at the bottom of the red bargello curve provides an interesting and energetic contrast. .

Geneal says, "This quilt was designed and started during a beginning bargello class in 1994. I liked choosing the fabrics from the rose print on black."

Geneal notes that after 20 years as a W.I.P. ( work in progress), she completed the quilting in 2014, with the help of her daughters, Diane Waite, Julieann Parkin, and Abby Yardley. Congratulations to Geneal on her very successful accomplishment !

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Here is Quilt Inspiration's countdown to Christmas ! Each day up to and
including Christmas Eve, we'll feature a quilt that reflects the spirit
and beauty of the season. Please join us for Day 6 of our celebration.

Florence's fascinating quilt includes vividly colored cardinal birds, which are not found in Utah, but are found in the Northeastern U.S., where Florence spent her childhood. Florence explains, "This quilt was hand-appliqued and machine quilted with a walking foot on a domestic sewing machine. The design is based on a pattern from the book "Warm Hearts" by Blackbird Designs. Modifications were made to the appliques to make them look either more realistic (the cardinals) or more symmetrical ( snowflakes, stars, holly leaves). " We love the cute house surrounded by the starry night sky and the cheerful holly leaves in each corner.

Florence continues, "Touches of embroidery were added by hand and the small black beads, used as eyes, give life to the animals."

Florence concludes, "Having grown up in the Northeastern U.S., this quilt.... serves as a reminder of happy childhood winters."

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Here is Quilt Inspiration's countdown to Christmas ! Each day up to and
including Christmas Eve, we'll feature a quilt that reflects the spirit
and beauty of the season. Please join us for Day 5 of our celebration.

Kara explains, "I was in a quilt group that exchanged 4 inch red and green blocks in 1995. The blocks sat in my sewing room until 2015, when I decided to make a Christmas wall hanging. The fabrics remind me of a country, traditional vintage Christmas." We love all the classic blocks, and we especially like the half-square triangle border, which gives a bright, energetic touch to this quilt.

We think it is very admirable that Kara kept these blocks for twenty years until she decided to make a traditional Christmas quilt. Congratulations to Kara for her decision to put them together into such a lovely project. We ourselves have some W.I.P.'s ( works in progress) and U.F.O.'s ( unfinished objects) that we are scurrying to finish up for this holiday season!

Friday, December 16, 2016

Here is Quilt Inspiration's countdown to Christmas ! Each day up to and
including Christmas Eve, we'll feature a quilt that reflects the spirit
and beauty of the season. Please join us for Day 4 of our celebration.

Debbie's fabulous album quilt was juried into the 2016 quilt show at the Museum of Art in Springville, Utah. Debbie states, "I got the idea years ago to cross stitch Santas and put them in a quilt. I didn't actually start until December 2011. I finished he last one in January 2016. I then put them together, (which was no easy task, as they were all different sizes) and had them machine quilted. I finished binding it in May 2016. Many of the cross stitch Santas came from Santa's Great Book by Leisure Arts."

Close-up, Cross Stitch Santas

We admired this very moving scene of the starlit night and the gathering around the manger to celebrate the birth of the Christ child. The light gold sashing provides the perfect shade for consolidating all the different cross-stitch blocks into a unified quilt.

Close-up, Cross Stitch Santas

This block depicting an old-fashioned St. Nicholas is a most admirable representation of Debbie's very accurate workmanship, which is seen throughout her quilt.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Here is Quilt Inspiration's countdown to Christmas ! Each day up to and
including Christmas Eve, we'll feature a quilt that reflects the spirit
and beauty of the season. Join us for Day 3 of our celebration.

We saw Barbara's pretty quilt at the Guild of Quilters of Contra Costa County California last spring, 2016 and loved the classic, clean look of the Amish stars and the festive fabrics. Barbara describes her machine-quilted creation: " I walked into the guild sewing room one day and saw "stars". A fellow quilter had a similar starry quilt laid out on a table. She shared her pattern, and this Christmas Star quilt is the result. it hangs in the living room every Christmas season. Thanks [to my fellow quilter] Marlene!"

On a winter's day, "Christmas Stars" provides so much warmth and cheerfulness. The smiling gingerbread person among the garland and poinsettia is especially eye-catching.

Displayed at the 2016 show of the Guild of Quilters of Contra Costa County California, Gingerbread Lane drew many "oohs" and "ahs". Cindy notes, "[Pattern designer] McKenna Ryan designed 8 separate fusible applique quilts, which I reconfigured into one quilt. Each quilt is embellished differently. Some blocks have beads and/or Swarovski crystals, some have a three-dimensional addition, and some use Angelina fiber highlights. It took quite a few math calculations to make the eight blocks work in a single quilt, and hours sewing on beads, adding wire to the Christmas tree branches and poinsettia leaves, and then backing them for the three-dimensional effect."

Close-up, Gingerbread Lane

This lovely three-dimensional poinsettia flower on the "Chocolate Moose" block is one of the many highlights of Cindy's quilt.

Close-up, Gingerbread Lane

Cindy continues, "Every single piece of applique had to be drawn on Steam a Seam fusible paper, affixed to the fabric, cut out, and ironed on the different background fabrics. Each piece also needed to be stitched to the quilt, which is very time-consuming. This is considered an 'art quilt', and the actual top quilting is totally different than in traditional quilting."

We love this adorable gingerbread house, complete with a gumdrop roof!

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Here is Quilt Inspiration's countdown to Christmas ! Each day up to and including Christmas Eve, we'll feature a quilt that reflects the spirit and beauty of the season. Let's start with Day 1: Christmas Memories, 75 x75, by Karen Brandt, quilted by Debbie Stanton

We loved this stunning quilt when we saw it on display at the 2016 Quilt Arizona show. Blue ribbon winner for Best Appliqued Large Quilt, Karen explains, "Christmas Memories is a delightful marriage of needle-turn applique with Christmas motifs, [including poinsettias and a Christmas cactus in the center]." This pattern was designed by Connie Sue Haidle of Apple Blossom Quilts.

It's no surprise to us that Christmas Memories also won the Arizona Quilters Hall of Fame Award, which is presented by the show sponsor to a quilt deemed worthy of special recognition.The recipient receives a ribbon of recognition, is included in the Members of the Airzona Quilters Hall of Fame for the current year, and is featured on the Hall of Fame website.

Quilted on a track-mounted machine by Debbie Stanton, this quilt has both contemporary motifs such as the pebbles design shown above, and outline and scrolling patterns, as shown below.

There are five 16 " square blocks in Karen's quilt. Here's a close-up of the hand-appliqued holly leaves and berries in the lower right-hand block.

Longarm quilter Debbie Stanton describes the quilting process for Christmas Memories on her Creative Quilting by Debbie Stanton blog. The "cathedral windows" motif she chose for the sashing strips is perfect for these narrow, geometric lines.

The white poinsettia flowers have a delicate gold snowflake design, which provides a lovely contrast and sets them off perfectly from the cream-colored background.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Part of the 2016 Pacific International Quilt Festival was the World Quilt Competition XX,
which is a special exhibition within the larger P.I.Q.F. This
competition, which is open to quilters from many countries, starts out
each summer on the East Coast of the U.S.A.; the best quilts from that
show then go on tour to the various regional shows in America. We hope
you enjoy this presentation, continuing with quilts from Israel.

This compelling piece is comprised of two quilts hung as a diptych with contemporary stylized figures of a woman and man. The woman is the larger of the two images; she looks straight ahead with one eye open, while keeping the other eye closed to the man on her left. Hava Hatzir says, "Between the time I was with someone, and the knowledge of being alone, I’m looking straight ahead!"

Looking Forward is comprised of snippets of interesting, colorful fabrics in a collage style. The fabrics were machine pieced, machine appliqued, and sewing machine quilted.

Genesis, 65 x 65", by Rachel Chowers

Rachel explains her inspiration for this quilt by quoting the Old Testament of The Bible: "And God said, 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dryland appear, and it was so.' And God Said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night.' "

Rachel's original design is machine pieced, machine appliqued, and sewing machine quilted. The light blues, deep purples, and yellow-oranges provide a striking use of light and shadow to depict the creation of the world.

Air Roots, 40 x 40", by Ruth Amir

We admire the free flowing lines, stark contrasts and textures of this black and white quilt. Ruth Amir says, "My opposite is black and white. My inspiration was the tree, phikus [ficus], with its long air roots falling down from its branches. I created this impression of Air Roots by using many kinds of threads and yarns."
Air roots or banyan roots are typical of ficus species trees. You can see a photo of a famous ficus tree in Israel in an article at The Times of Israel.

Through Fire and Water, 42 x 49", by Judith Schonewald

This original bargello design was quilted in waves, then overlaid with jagged spikes of orange and yellow "fire". Judith Schonewald says, "The opposites are fire vs. water. They are very frightening and very powerful. They are both so beautiful, but also very destructive, however, the world can’t be without them."

Judith's use of raw edge strips with loose threads provides intriguing substance and texture. Through Fire and Water is machine pieced, machine appliqued, and sewing machine quilted.

Chaos, 5250 square inches, by Pnina Yulius

Pnina explains her very innovative work: "The black typifies the darkness and cold and the white typifies the light. The red color strengthens the heat coming from the light that is opposite to the cold coming from the darkness." Chaos is machine pieced, machine appliqued, and sewing machine quilted.

Pnina continues about her original design: "This quilt is made from a variety of materials, including velvet, lace, organza, silk, and cotton. It is also made from various, different pieces to illustrate [the concept of] chaos. The idea is from the story of creation, the first chapter. The earth was in chaos and the light was born from the darkness."

Inside-Outside, 58 x 49", by Noga Shraibman-Cohen

Inside-Outside features a small gray figure sitting on the horizon of the central image, surrounded by natural shapes and vibrant colors. The artist says, "The subject matter of this quilt is the contrast between one’s inner world and the surrounding outside world. The world can be colorful, happy and energetic. Life can be joyful on the outside while at the same time the person is introspective, disconnected, maybe sad, and the outside world does not touch him." Inside-Outside was machine pieced, hand appliqued, and sewing machine quilted.